The anchor guys at "J" radio wanted to know why the governor was
flying off to Sweden and France because as a lame duck, what power does
she have to bring jobs back?
Maybe she was going to rack up some last minute frequent flyer miles
for herself and hubby Dan?
To even ask the question reveals that some don't know how driven
this governor is to go out of office, in 79 days, on a high and not a
low on the job front.
Two years into her term, Gov. Jennifer Granholm was socked with the
harsh realization that she was swimming up stream in efforts to grow
enough jobs to replace the soon to be 800,000 jobs that would be lost
on her watch.
That is not the legacy she wants to leave behind when she locks
the door on December 31. So ever since she has "gone anywhere and
anytime" to scrounge together as many new jobs as she can.
Will she bring some back from this sojourn? Of course. The jobs
are always teed up for her and the personal visit is used to just close
the deal.
Maybe it will be only a couple hundred jobs, but she'll take
it…anything to polish her job record.
Meanwhile on the home front, the governor continues to struggle
with her legislative agenda. Earlier she "found" $25 million in a
projected state surplus and immediately earmarked it for restoring the
Pure Michigan ad campaign which would bring back more jobs, too.
House Republicans concur that the successful campaign should be
saved, but not with a "surplus" that may not be there.
Steal some money from the 21st Century Jobs Fund was the GOP
counter offer. That is one of the governor's fav job creating coffers.
The GOP rejection of her original idea was buttressed by the
House head bean counter who warned the "surplus" might not materialize.
That will give her something to think about when she's on the Big
Bird to Europe.